A 43-year-old quadriplegic man in Italy has won the approval of regional health authorities in his his bid to to avail of assisted suicide.

The man, identified only as Mario, was paralyzed in a traffic accident 10 years ago. He had initially decided to go to Switzerland, which has euthanasia laws in place, but then decided to take his case forward in Italy.

A 2019 decision by the country’s Constitutional Court found that assisted suicide was permissible when patients are able to make decisions and are in ‘overwhelming pain’, effectively legalising it. Opponents are concerned it will pave the way for vulnerable people to be put under pressure and the grounds for assisted suicide will expand, as in other countries.

In practice, however, the country’s health system lacks any kind of established pathway to request assisted suicide. Mario’s case is the first of its kind since the Constitutional Court decision, and thus stands to set an important precedent.

The latest decision by the ethical board of the health authority in the region of Marche should clear the way for the patient to go through with the assisted suicide, although the method by which it can be carried out remains to be decided.

Christian groups, a U.S. government panel and former senior U.S. diplomats are furious over US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s decision to take Nigeria off a list of countries accused of engaging in or tolerating religious persecution.

State Department officials gave no reason for the move other than saying Blinken, upon the advice of various department sections, decided Nigeria didn’t meet the legal threshold to be named as a “country of particular concern” in an annual religious freedom list released by the US Govt.

Critics, however, are calling Blinken’s move political, designed to appease an important African partner. One former diplomat called it the “revenge of the bureaucracy” at the State Department. Others questioned how it fits with the Biden administration’s claim that human rights lies at the centre of its foreign policy.

The decision is likely to enhance worries among conservatives, including many evangelical Christians, that the Biden administration — unlike the Trump administration — will de-emphasise the plight of Christians persecuted overseas.

“It’s a victory for the terrorists — it’s a defeat for anyone concerned with human rights and religious freedom,” Frank Wolf, a former GOP congressman, said about Blinken’s decision. Wolf spearheaded some of the key legislation requiring administrations to name religious freedom violators; one of the laws is named after him.

A new report into the kidnapping, forced conversion and sexual victimisation of Christian women and girls was released yesterday to mark ‘Red Wednesday’.

Catholic Bishop, Michael Nazir-Ali, called the practice an ‘endemic evil’.

The research suggested that in the countries under examination, not only are women from minority faith groups particularly susceptible to attack, but often Christian women are targeted most by militants. In Nigeria, Christians make up 95 percent of women and girls being held by Islamist extremists, and in Pakistan, it is suggested that Christians could comprise up 70 percent of minority faith girls and young women forcibly converted and married every year. Hindu girls are also a major target of kidnappings in parts of Pakistan.

Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need’s (ACN) ‘Hear Her Cries’ report is the first of its kind to focus on the phenomenon of young women who are seized, because both their sex and religion makes them vulnerable to abduction and assault. The research, looking at the situation for religious groups in 196 countries, found that the number of incidents involving girls and women being taken from their families, raped and forced to change their faith has grown over the last few years.

There’s been a call for an open acknowledgement of the ‘devastating impact’ of the new abortion law, and the spiraling abortion rate that has resulted in a huge increase in the number of Irish women having abortions in just two years. More than 13,000 took place in Ireland in 2019 and 2020.

At an event outside the Dáil yesterday attended by several members of the Oireachtas, the Pro Life Campaign launched its new document “Ireland’s Abortion Law: End the Silence”.

The PLC also published the findings of an opinion poll it commissioned that shows overwhelming public support for women being offered information about alternatives before proceeding with an abortion.

A second poll finding shows a massive 77% of people support the abortion law being amended to ensure that babies who survive the abortion procedure are given medical care.

Speaking at the event outside Leinster House, Eilís Mulroy, spokesperson for the PLC, said, “the silence surrounding the devastating impact of the new abortion law must end.

“Right now, women are being kept in the dark about abortion alternatives. They simply aren’t being informed about other options. This appalling situation cannot continue.

She added: “The silence surrounding the reality of babies surviving the abortion procedure and being left to die alone must end. Ensuring that no baby is ever abandoned and left alone to die struggling to catch his or her breath is a humanitarian issue not a political one”.

A Social Democrats bill dealing with relationships and sexuality education in schools, which they say should be ‘fact-based and free from religious influence’, has been described as ‘an attack on pluralism and diversity’.

Speaking in the Dail in opposition to the Bill, Aontú Leader and Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín said he believes all parents should be able to send their children to a school that reflects their ethos.

“This by definition is the pluralist education model that a republic should have. I believe that the Social Democrat members here today should be able to send their children to any school that reflects their ethos. But I oppose strongly the Soc Dems denying parents with a different ethos doing the same. I oppose the Soc Dems forcing their ethos on other families who don’t want it”.

He continued: “The Soc Dem bill is an attack on pluralism. It is an attack of diversity. The Soc Dem bill is a one size fits all bill.  It states that parents can forget about their ethos, that the Minister of the day will determine the ethos of the education system and parents and students can like it or lump it”.

He also criticised the idea of a ‘science-based’ RSE programme with no ethos.

“You need a value system to make sense of science. Science has given us the power to split the atom. Our value system determines whether we use it for a nuclear bomb or a nuclear energy. The Soc Dems will say that they are a party of science, are they saying that they don’t have a value system? Of course not”.

The US city of Philadelphia will pay Catholic Social Services a $2 million settlement and reinstate their foster care contract after the Supreme Court unanimously found in June that the city had discriminated against the group due to their religious beliefs for not certifying same-sex couples as foster parents.

Most of the money will be used to pay Catholic Social Services’ [CSS] legal fees, and CSS will receive $56,000.

As part of the settlement, CSS will be exempt from Philadelphia’s nondiscrimination ordinance, and will receive a contract for $350,000 for foster care. Additionally, CSS will have to state on its website that, while it does not work with same-sex couples, it will refer them to an organization that will.

Ken Gavin, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, said the archdiocese was “grateful that our ministries can continue serving those who count on us, especially foster children in need of a loving home.”

Four Mayo siblings have lost a legal action they took against the National University of Ireland, Galway, claiming they were victims of discrimination, because of their religious beliefs.

Isaac and Enoch Burke, along with their sisters Kezia and Ammi, claimed the university had discriminated against them, when they were banned from being members of all college student societies in 2014.

All four are members of the Christian Union Society. The society held meetings and events at the college and had 127 members in 2014.

Mr Justice Raymond Groarke delivered his judgment in the case at the Circuit Court in Galway yesterday, following a three-day hearing last month.

Acknowledging that the sanction imposed by the university authorities was severe, Mr Justice Groarke said they were entitled to take such action.

He pointed out that there were many procedural flaws in the process undertaken by NUI Galway, but added, while there were absences of fair and proper procedures, these were not motivated by religious antipathy.

In addition, he said the rules “deficient and all as they were, applied equally to all members of the student body”.

Disability campaigners in the UK are urging MPs to support a cross-party amendment to the Government’s Health and Care Bill to introduce an equal time limit for disability-selective abortions.

Currently in England, Wales and Scotland, there is a general 24-week time limit for abortion, but if the baby has a disability, including Down’s syndrome, cleft lip and club foot, abortion is legal right up to birth.

The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has consistently criticised countries that provide for abortion on the basis of disability.

Its concluding observations on the initial report of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland made a key recommendation that the UK change its abortion law so that it does not single out babies with disabilities. The Government, however, decided to ignore the recommendation.

Heidi Crowter, from Coventry, who has Down’s syndrome commented that the law says that babies shouldn’t be aborted up to birth, but if a baby is found to have Down’s syndrome, it can be aborted up until birth. This is the current law in the UK and I think it’s not fair”.

“I am asking MPs to please support this amendment. People shouldn’t be treated differently because of their disabilities, it’s downright discrimination,” she said

Separate Masses will be held in New Zealand according to whether the attendees have a vaccine cert or not.

The announcement by the country’s Catholic bishop is in response to new Government guidelines that allow greater numbers to attend events for the vaccinated.

Each parish will be asked to provide Mass for people with the “My Vaccine Pass” required for unrestricted gatherings under the Orange and Green traffic light settings. Parishes will also be asked to provide the opportunity for people to attend a separate numbers-restricted Mass without providing proof of vaccination.

All lay people who help with Mass and all other public-facing ministries will need to be vaccinated for vaccinated-only work. Priests are being asked to be vaccinated, and will be limited in their ministry if they are not.

The Government says the “traffic light” system will start soon after 29 November. The vaccine passes required for unrestricted entry to many places are available for downloading now.

Under guidelines made public so far, the system will allow unrestricted numbers of vaccinated people to gather in a church under the Orange and Green settings, but restrict numbers without a vaccine pass to 50 (Orange) or 100 (Green). Under the Red setting, 100 can attend Mass with a vaccine pass, and 10 at a Mass without a pass.

Social Democrat co-leader Róisín Shortall is to table a Bill seeking a referendum to remove references to “God” in the presidential oath from the Constitution after the European Court of Human Rights judges dismissed her challenge to the oath.

While Ms Shortall characterised the pledge as “taking an oath to ‘almighty God’”, the wording of oath simply begins with the phrase “In the presence of Almighty God“.

“In a modern republic, it is anathema that those elected to one of the highest political offices in the land, that of president, are required to swear an oath to ‘almighty God’,” she said, adding that such oaths “are incompatible with freedom of conscience”.

Atheist Ireland said it would continue to press for the removal of religious oaths from the Constitution, arguing that they still contravene human rights law.